Cynthia Nixon Spoke About Her Mother's Illegal Abortion at a Rally

Activist, former star of Sex and the City, and now political candidate Cynthia Nixon, has been going full speed ahead during her campaign for governor of New York. Recently, she added her voice to the Abolish ICE movement, and has been incredibly vocal about the policies and actions that harm women, black people, and people of color, and the decriminalization of marijuana. Now, she’s vehemently speaking out about the dangerous, though not uncharted, territory that the United States is approaching when it comes to potentially losing abortion rights.

During a campaign rally in New York on Tuesday, July 10, the gubernatorial candidate held up an old wire coat hanger, and candidly told the story of her mother’s illegal abortion. According to People, Nixon told the crowd that her mother had an illegal abortion because she had no other options.

“Abortion rights and reproductive rights is a very personal issue for me. My mother had an abortion here in New York state before it was legal. And when I was old enough, she made sure to tell me about it,” she said, adding, “It was very hard for her to speak about. She didn’t give a lot of details, but it was very important for her to tell me that she had had an abortion, that it had been illegal, and that it had been a tremendously awful experience. She had wanted to make sure that I knew her history so I can fully value how crucial reproductive freedom is.” After explaining the shame and anxiety that her mother faced when abortion was not legal, Nixon said, “We must never, ever, ever go back to a time when any woman feels she has to make this kind of a choice. And this is why we must fight.”

Shortly after President Trump announced his nominee for the Supreme Court on Monday night, Twitter users started the trending hashtag #OneInFour to share their abortion stories, and why nominee Brett Kavanaugh could be a threat to abortion access in America. Ultimately, Kavanaugh’s voting record on the issue is undefined, but suggests that if seated on the Supreme Court, he could pose a threat to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion in the United States, should it come up for consideration. The nomination has left many prochoice advocates intensely worried about the future of reproductive rights.

Nixon has previously spoken about her mother’s abortion and the importance of protecting reproductive rights. In 2009, she openly spoke about her mother’s abortion in an interview with CNN, saying, “My mother had an illegal abortion pre-1973, and it’s something that I would never want to face or want my daughter to be facing or any of her friends. Abortion is a right I feel must not go away, and I feel like people aren’t mobilizing so much because it’s so complicated and it’s difficult to understand.” She then wrote an essay about the story in 2016 for Time, boldly stating that abortion rights are human rights.

In addition to speaking out about why people must protect reproductive and sexual health at her rally, Nixon joined the #OneInFour conversation on Twitter, which highlights the fact that nearly one in four people in America will have an abortion. After the rally, she tweeted, “A wire hanger is something that women in this country were driven to use out of fear and desperation, performing abortions on themselves, often with devastating effects. We must never go back to a time when any women feels that she has to make this kind of a choice. #OneInFour.”